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Ida Wood

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For the astronomer, see Ida E. Woods.

Ida Mayfield Wood (1838 – March 12, 1932) was a noted American socialite turned recluse, who was the third wife of politician and newspaper publisher and editor Benjamin Wood (1820–1900).

Biography

Born Ellen Walsh to Irish immigrant peddler, she changed her name to Ida E. Mayfield and moved to New York City in 1857 at the age of 19. She set her sights on 37-year-old Benjamin Wood, a married politician and businessman, who co-owned the New York Daily News.[1] She boldly propositioned him in a letter dated May 28 and soon became his mistress; they had an illegitimate daughter, Emma Wood.[1] Ida claimed her father was Henry Mayfield, a Louisiana sugar planter.[1] After Wood's second wife died, they married in 1867.[1][2]

Her husband was the publisher of the New York Daily News, three-time member of Congress and two-time member of the New York State Senate.[3] As his wife, she gained entry into the elite level of New York society; she danced with the Prince of Wales in 1860 and met Abraham Lincoln.[1] Her brother-in-law was Fernando Wood, twice mayor of New York City and three-time member of the House of Representatives.[3]

Benjamin was an inveterate gambler, however. He once even wagered the Daily News; luckily he won.[1] Ida, on the other hand, was very careful with money. She got her husband to agree to split his winnings with her, while he was responsible for all of his losses.[1] By the time he died in 1900, she already had possession of essentially all of his wealth by this means.[1]

She herself edited and published the newspaper for a while, but then sold it in 1901 for more than $250,000[1] or around $300,000.[3]

In 1907, she closed her bank account, taking out nearly $1 million.[1] Then Ida, her sister Mary E. Mayfield, and her daughter Emma took a two-room suite at the Herald Square Hotel, room 552, and became recluses. They had little contact with anyone, even hotel employees, for decades. Maids were not permitted inside to clean the rooms.

Emma died in the hospital in 1928 at the age of 71. Then, when Mary became very ill, on May 5, 1931, Ida was finally forced to summon help.[1] This intrusion turned out badly for Ida. Mary died, and people became aware of the squalor in which Ida lived. They also discovered how rich she was.[4]

In the midst of the Great Depression, her relatives and their lawyers battled to gain control of her wealth.[3] She was declared incompetent in September 1931 and moved one floor down to two other rooms over her objections.[1] Many hundreds of thousands of dollars in cash and other valuables were found in her suite and in trunks stored in the hotel basement.[1] More than $3000 a month was spent on her care and protection.[3]

After she died on March 12, 1932 of bronchial pneumonia, at the age of 93, no fewer than 1103 claimants squabbled over the distribution of her estate.[3] The truth about her past emerged after six month from her death told by Edward T. Corcoran, a lawyer, later confirmed by Joseph A. Cox, counsel to the New York Public Administrator.[5] She was actually born Ellen Walsh in England, the daughter of Ann Crawford and Thomas Walsh, who emigrated to the United States and settled in Massachusetts; her father died in San Francisco in 1864.[1][6] Her "daughter" Emma was actually her sister.[1][7]

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o Karen Abbott (January 23, 2013). "Everything Was Fake but Her Wealth". Smithsonian Magazine.
  2. ^ Benjamin Wood Dead, New-York Tribune, 22 February 1900, p. 5.
  3. ^ a b c d e f "Review of Mrs. Wood's Rubbish Pile: The Recluse of Herald Square. By Joseph A. Cox. New York: The Macmillan Company". The New York Times. October 4, 1964.
  4. ^ Renee M. Winters. The Hoarding Impulse: Suffocation of the Soul. Routledge, 2015. ISBN 9781138839014
  5. ^ RECLUSE, 93, HOARDING MILLION DEFIES TREASURE SEARCHERS, The Standard Union, Brooklyn, October 7, 1931
  6. ^ Annals of the Law. The Rich Recluse of Herald Square, The New Yorker, October 31, 1953, p. 39.
  7. ^ Frank McNally. Fascinating Ida – Frank McNally on the continued story of Ida Wood, a rich recluse who hid her humble Irish origins, The Irish Times, October 17, 2019

Further reading

  • Cox, Joseph A. The Recluse of Herald Square: The Mystery of Ida E. Wood. New York: Macmillan, 1964.
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